This copy of Kirby and The Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World was provided by Nintendo
Kirby and the Forgotten Land by HAL Laboratory and Nintendo was a groundbreaking game for the Kirby franchise, bringing its mascot into true 3D for a big, platforming adventure for the first time. Now it has received a Nintendo Switch 2 edition upgrade called Star-Crossed World, adding in twelve new stages, a new boss fight and a plethora of new collectibles and lore for fans to enjoy. All while bumping up the resolution and framerate to 4K/60FPS docked, and 1080p/60FPS in handheld.
Source Gaming previously reviewed the original Kirby and the Forgotten Land release for Nintendo Switch back in 2022 and so this review won’t be covering the main game again and instead will focus on the new content added. Although it is worth highlighting that the bump to performance significantly improves the game as its frame drops were our biggest complaint about the presentation of the original. Kirby has never looked smoother!
As for the new content, the twelve new stages remix levels from the first game before spiraling into their own original stage layouts. The start might look similar but new crystals force Kirby into new paths, encountering new mouthful gimmicks and stronger enemies than the base game. It’s a neat way of reusing assets and locations in a fresh way, providing enough new level layouts to the point where they are essentially entirely new stages.
While Kirby doesn’t obtain any new copy abilities, he does get access to new mouthful modes which make up a good portion of the new level design. The three new objects that Kirby can get stuck in his gullet are the Spring, Gear and Sign. The former provides Kirby with a charge jump and ground-pound, providing greater verticality in both directions. The Gear lets Kirby grip to walls and the Sign signifies sliding sections.
Of the three, Gear gets the most use with some of the most challenging level design in Star-Cross World and that makes it the best addition of the three. Sign is very much a gimmick only used a handful of times for some tricky auto-running sections. Still, similar to the mouthful modes of the base game, which also make a return in some new stages, these additions shake up the gameplay and serve as great pace changers from the usual Kirby platforming.
While there is only a single new boss battle, the colosseum received a new difficulty level in the form of the Ultimate Z EX cup. It throws every single one of the hardest versions of each boss battle at the player back-to-back, including the new boss, in a very difficult gauntlet. Completing it is needed to unlock some of the new figures which are also needed for 100%.
And Kirby fans will want to push for that 100% to secure the exciting new Kirby lore. Between the new figure descriptions and some of the musical motifs found within the game’s new songs, Star-Crossed Worlds does a fantastic job of tying a ribbon on the story of the ‘Forgotten Land’ and its previous inhabitants. It even implies some connections between characters and events of prior games, only noticeable by the most avid listeners in the audience.
Kirby and The Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World: Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World is a fantastic upgrade to the original game and a must-have for anyone who skipped over that initial release. Not only do the performance enhancements fix many of the issues found in that original launch, the new content is fun and challenging for fans of the series and newcomers alike. It is only a net-positive to a game that was already outstanding. – NantenJex
